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Bing Nursery School Child Development Research & Training 850 Escondido Road Stanford, CA 94305-7120 (650) 723-4865 |
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by Jeanne W. Lepper, Director An interview with Jeanne Lepper conducted by Chia-wa Yeh, editor of The Bing Times.
I know Bing was founded and is run as a laboratory school, but what does that really mean? Laboratory schools have been part of universities and
colleges in this country for well over a hundred years. The function of
these schools is determined by the nature of the institutions to which
they are attached. For example, they may serve as the primary research
laboratory for psychologists in a research university, as is the case at
Bing, and they are often part of teacher-training institutions. Basically,
these schools not only provide excellent education for the children
enrolled but also a program designed to facilitate research on
children’s development, to assist in the training of undergraduates to
work with children, and to provide an exemplary model for other
professionals. One group of laboratory schools includes the famous
schools that operated from nursery school all the way through high school
at campuses like the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan,
UCLA, and the Bank Street College of Education. These schools promote the
longitudinal study of development and research on the long-term effects of
educational practices, and they provide sites for teacher-training at many
levels. The second large and prestigious group of laboratory schools is comprised of the laboratory nursery schools including the Bing Nursery School at Stanford, the Eliot-Pearson Children’s School at Tufts University, the Merrill-Palmer Institute, the Mills College Children’s School, the Yale Child Study Center Nursery School, the Wimpfheimer Nursery School at Vassar College, etc. These schools have their roots in G. Stanley Hall’s child study movement. Their emphasis on research goes all the way back to the Iowa Child Welfare Station where early studies of children’s health and development revolutionized the treatment of orphaned and hospitalized children. Many of the early laboratory schools began as part of the progressive movement in education. John Dewey, the founder of the progressive approach, taught first at the University of Michigan, then at Chicago, and later at Columbia. His movement, perhaps the most well-known effort for improving schools in the 20th century, stressed the importance of education as experience, the project approach to education, and learning-by-doing. As a graduate student at Michigan, I was impressed with the long-term projects carried out in various grades at University Elementary School. For example, the sixth graders one year researched beekeeping, then kept bees, made honey, sold it throughout Ann Arbor, and raised enough money to finance their class trip. They then studied interest rates and decided on the best bank to place their funds to gain additional income until the trip. Laboratory nursery schools like Bing provide a site for extensive quantitative studies of a particular developmental period. Bing Nursery School is the largest school of this type in the world and has been the site for hundreds of studies by leaders in the field of developmental psychology, as well as a training ground for future researchers, clinicians, child policy advocates, and others. In the psychology courses taught at Bing, students have the opportunity to see theory and principles put into practice. Numerous undergraduates write in their evaluations and in personal notes to me that these courses are among the most memorable and valuable they take at Stanford. In the observation courses, for example, they can see behavioral changes and watch children react before their eyes. When participating in the classrooms, the students have to think all the time, assess the child’s behavior and reactions, and make a judgment about an appropriate response. It is real life, or “experiential learning,” as John Dewey would have put it. There is a large enrollment at Bing School, but the age range of the children is narrow, two to five years. Why did you choose this age group to focus on during your career? There’s no question that I’m enamored with this age group. The tremendous amount of growth that takes place in the first five years of life combined with the engaging qualities of young children make this a field I never tire of and am constantly excited about. Young children are sorting out knowledge and understanding, and the process is right there for us to observe, think about, and respect. For example, a child recently described Bing School as her “universery.” My passion for this age group began with my early experience in exemplary laboratory schools and child study departments on the East Coast. The fact that there is a discipline, the scientific study of the child, that allows us to pay close attention to development of young children excited me greatly and still does. I also like very much the concept of an outstanding school for young children with a large enrollment to support cutting-edge research with this age group and to serve as a demonstration school for visitors. However, I do miss seeing children continue through the elementary school years, both because of my own academic interest in longitudinal studies and because young children do not always remember their early years. This is why we encourage parents to bring their children back to visit and are very happy to include siblings in the school in order to know the family over a period of years. Elinor Fitch Griffin, an author I like to quote in the courses we teach here at Bing, describes three- and four-year-old children in this way: “They are on an island of childhood set apart from what came before and from what will come later. This time in their lives is neither babyhood nor childhood as we adults remember it. Yet education solidly based on an understanding of these children and designed especially for them could bring to our society, as the children mature, a new richness we cannot afford to be without.” Tell us the basic facts and figures about Bing. I’m glad you’ve asked me that question, because I’m always surprised that so many people, including many of my colleagues here on campus, are unaware of the size and complexity of the school. Each year more than 450 children are enrolled in the school in the academic year and the summer session. The teaching staff of head teachers, teachers, and assistant teachers totals nearly forty. During the course of a year, a few hundred students from psychology, human biology, linguistics, and other departments take courses or carry out part of their coursework at Bing. Researchers—faculty, graduate students, and their undergraduate assistants—account for another group of thirty to forty individuals. Our team of six administrators strive to meet the needs of over 800 parents and to manage the financial work that accompanies a school of this size. Each of these groups contributes to the dynamic nature of the school, and together they make it a very exciting and special place for all of us. What do you think are Bing’s greatest strengths? First, the mission of the school is clear. You have probably heard me describe many times the fact that the school is maintained by the Department of Psychology to provide a site for faculty research and undergraduate training in developmental psychology. Being a research laboratory in a major university and being mandated to carry out an exemplary program provides tremendous support and motivation to run an outstanding school. Second, we have the opportunity to recruit and encourage a group of exceptional teachers with complementary skills. It’s the quality of our teachers that makes the school so successful. Third, but equally important on my list, is the physical setting, with spacious classrooms and exquisite, natural grounds so thoughtfully designed and constructed under the direction of the founding director, Dr. Edith M. Dowley. The school was built specifically for the two groups who use it, young children and their teachers on the one hand, and Stanford students and researchers on the other. This school is a natural haven for the children and adults who have the privilege of being here. The physical beauty of the outside playyards and the emotional, intellectual, and professional support the teachers strive to provide for all our constituents are what I think of as the heart of Bing School.
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